Newspapers For Suya

In Nigeria, no newspaper truly retires. After the headlines are read and the opinions are formed, it makes its way to the suya spot, spread across a wooden table, used to sell meat it was never designed to hold, serving a purpose no editor intended. This is not a niche behaviour. It is a national ritual, so common it has become invisible. For Power Oil's Sallah campaign, we decided to leverage it.

The idea was simple: if the newspaper was already going to the suya spot, we would design for that destination. We bought a full-page spread in The Guardian and created an ad that was as much a media placement as it is a cultural object; one that acknowledged both its lives.

Suya sellers across Lagos began using the newspaper as their packaging, exactly as designed. Nigerians photographed it, shared it, and talked about it not as an ad but as something that understood them.

We don't interrupt culture, we live in it.